CU Tennis Enters Final Ivy League Weekend of the Season

The men’s and women’s tennis teams will wrap up their Ivy League seasons against Penn and Princeton this weekend. The men are coming off a disappointing loss to Brown that all but ended their chance of repeating as Ivy League champions. The women were swept by Brown and Yale last weekend, earning just one point, and they are still searching for their first win in the Ivy League.

First up for the men will be the Tigers, which are currently tied for last place in the Ivy League with an in-league record of 1-4. Heading the Princeton lineup is junior Peter Capkovic, who has gone 2-3 in his last five Ivy League matches. Last week, however, Capkovic had an impressive win over Harvard’s number one singles player Ashwin Kumar in three close sets. Although the Tigers’ overall record of 9-9 is not overly impressive, Princeton has played a very tough schedule highlighted by a match against the perennial powerhouse Pepperdine, which is ranked 15th in the country. In addition, the Tigers played the likes of Duke, San Diego State, and Elon, all of which were ranked.

The men will close out their regular season against Penn, in a match that will most likely be the Lions’ last of the season. Last season, Columbia split the Ivy League title with Penn after defeating them in the final match of the regular season, and then won the title outright after defeating Penn again the next weekend in a “playoff” match. While this match will have much less riding on the outcome, the Quakers will no doubt have revenge on their minds when they host the Lions.

Although Penn is just one season removed from splitting the Ivy title with Columbia, they have struggled to re-find their form from last season. The Quakers have gone 11-9 and are currently tied with Columbia for third place in the Ivy League. Penn has battled injuries and a tough schedule, but has looked fantastic at times this season. The school started its season 7-1 but has dipped considerably since then, going 5-7 since the beginning of March. Senior Jason Pinsky leads the Quaker lineup, and is one of the best players in the Ivy League. Last season, Pinsky was a unanimous selection for First Team All-Ivy honors in both singles and doubles. In addition, he qualified for the NCAA singles tournament and notched a win over the number 13-ranked player in the nation.

The women are still searching for their first Ivy League win under first-year head coach Ilene Weintraub. The head coach, however, does not expect to get any easy wins against Penn or Princeton this weekend.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the year, I would have said that Penn or Princeton was the favorite to win the Ivy League,” Weintraub said.
Against Princeton, Weintraub expects to see an intriguing battle at number one singles with the Lions’ Nina Suda pitted against Melissa Saiontz.

“Nina played an amazing match last weekend, where she lost 14-12 in the third set to the best player in the Ivy League [Janet Kim of Yale] and almost beat her, and her opponent this weekend is 0-5 in the league, so I expect a great matchup.”

Penn, which was last season’s Ivy League champion and representative in the NCAA tournament, is the Lions’ final opponent of the season. Penn is led by Ekaterina Kosminskaya at number one singles. Kosminskaya is one of several players on the Penn roster born and recruited from Russia. A sophomore, she is one of the most accomplished players in the Ivy League. As a freshman, she was given the rare distinction of being named the Ivy